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Prison Break Season 5 Episode 9: ‘Behind The Eyes’ Review

This post contains SPOILERS.

We start of the finale 6 minutes (in canon) before the events at the end of the previous episode. Here we see that Jacob has Sarah tied up downstairs and that he is aware that Michael is coming because he planted the map. Of course, we know most of this already, the real kicker comes when we find out that Van Gogh has entered the room upstairs. Here we see that he really doesn’t want to do this anymore, that this isn’t what they signed on for. I was honestly shocked when A&W shot him. It’s really sad when the only reason they’re doing it is because they believe Michael killed someone they care about, when in fact it was Jacob who did it.

When we see Sara running after Mike and Jacob it really warmed my heart (and broke it a little) especially when Michael had to pull her back and calm her down. This brings us into one detour of having to take Lincoln to the hospital after being shot. With this being the last episode, possibly forever, they really did try to pack in as much action/drama as they could and it honestly worked.

After this we get a team up with Michael, Sara, T-Bag, and Whip. While they’re making plans Jacob uses his charm, and his relationship with Mike, to convince him that Michael is the enemy and wants to hurt them. It was a really sad moment when he shouted at Michael over the phone, but it spurred the group on to finish their revenge against Jacob and end things once and for all.

First, we see Michael break into Jacob’s secret office. At this point we don’t know what exactly what he’s up too, but he threatens Jacob and forces a meet. Elsewhere, we have Sara at the hospital. On her way out she goes to speak to Van Gogh. It actually broke my heart a little when he asked her to just let him die. I appreciate that he turned over to the good side in the end because as we’ve discovered. he wasn’t going after Michael because he was evil, but because he was trying to avenge someone he cared about. He was also one of Jacob’s victims.

The best scenes, however, came from T-Bag and Whip. We see them show up at a motel and T-Bag is trying to set a good example. Explaining that killing is wrong and the only reason he would do it in this situation is because it’s for the greater good. Besides this father-son time, we finally get some answers about the Elvis impersonator! Naturally, he was a former inmate who Michael helped out and owed him a favour.

Here’s where everyone slowly comes back together again. On the one hand, we have Sara who goes to get Mike. Previously, Jacob had lied and said that Sara was dead, but upon seeing her Mike realises that Jacob is the one in the wrong and the one he should be afraid of. We see her enter the building and search for him and when she’s interrupted Lincoln appears out of nowhere. I really do enjoy the Lincoln and Sara relationship and I hope if they ever do plan to do more, that that’s a relationship we get to see more of.

While all of that is going on we have Michael, T-Bag, and Whip showing up at the warehouse to meet Jacob and A&W. During the confrontation, Whip gets shot and I honestly hoped for as long as I could that it was fake and was part of Michael’s plan, but slowly it makes it abundantly clear that this was real and Whip really was dying. I was partly in shock and partly trying not to cry. I can safely say that Whip is one of my new favourite characters in the show, but I’m definitely not angry, mostly because this was the last episode.

It was partly satisfactory to see T-Bag get the upper hand with A&W but it was also kind of sad because we know, that just like Van Gogh, she believes going after Michael and co is the right thing and she also knows there’s no way of getting out. The final parting between T-Bag and Whip was actually quite heartbreaking and then the former allows for himself to be arrested which we know is part of the later plan. I do wish we got to see more of T-Bag and Whip together.

After all of this, we finally get to see Michael’s master plan, something that has been in the works for several years. It was so interesting to see Michael do things like changing what he was wearing as he ran, but when they ran through those flaps and we saw the setting, it was just perfect. With this being the finale, I could have believed that Michael really was shot in that moment, however, I am happy that wasn’t the case seen as this season was all about bringing him back from the dead.

We really get to see how he planned every single possible detail. We know at this point that the Elvis impersonator made the set, Michael deliberately put blanks in the gun knowing that Jacob wouldn’t even bother to check, they built the set into a truck so it could be driven away before the cops could find it, we find out that the blood collected by Whip and T-Bag was planted by Michael in Jacob’s office (whereas before we thought he had only stolen hard drives), and the best part comes when Michael essentially tells the CIA the truth when being interviewed.

Sure the photos he showed were fake, but they were reenactments of a real crime. Other than planting the blood evidence, which was necessary, everything Michael tells them is the truth, he doesn’t have to (fully) lie about it all. I do wonder though if he accounted for Jacob’s assistant, Andrew Nelson, or not. It does seem like Andrew has been there right from the beginning, but I can’t tell if he was a wild card. If he was the one thing that Michael couldn’t guarantee would work out, but of course, we discover that Andrew informed the CIA of everything (most likely as part of some deal).

When all is said and done we see Michael is set free and given his old identity back (he even gets a job offer which thankfully he denies). I liked the fact that after his release we see that he, Sara, and Mike are a family again, but also that Sheba and Lincoln are together and are also a part of that family. The fact that Sheba seems to have fitted into their family so well really makes me happy, and we can assume that there’s also her family, as well as characters like C-Note and Sucre. My favourite part of this scene was the little moment where Michael casually says “I love you” to Lincoln who returns it with an “I love you, too.” It was so soft that I couldn’t stop smiling.

It was honestly such a lovely way to go and this entire episode just wrapped up really well. I would say that all my questions were answered and what we got was satisfactory. Of course, the bow that tied it all together and made it absolutely perfect comes when we see that Jacob has been sent to Fox River (I couldn’t stop smiling!) and it gets even better when T-Bag jumps off the top bunk after he and Jacob have been locked in their cell. We can assume that T-Bag plans to live out his sentence, which will probably be made longer after killing Jacob, however, I’d like to think that because he sacrificed his freedom, and because Michael mentioned that someone would have to take Jacob out, that there’s a plan to get him out (or get him out earlier). Most likely done by sticking to the law as opposed to breaking T-Bag out. Michael clearly still doesn’t think highly of him, but after recent events, it’s clear that T-Bag isn’t the same person he used to be. Plus, I’d like to believe that Michael would have helped for Whip because in Michael’s plans Whip doesn’t die and would have most likely wanted a relationship with his father.

All in all, I loved this season of Prison Break and I’m so sad to see it over again. I would be content with this being the end, it feels like the one we should have had before, but I also wouldn’t complain at more. This season proved that they know what they’re doing. I just hope that they do it, they have something really amazing up their sleeves.